Flashback: Remembering Arsenal and Reading's historic 12-goal thriller

In the 2012/13 season, Reading were a newly promoted team in the top flight, where Arsenal had finished third in the previous campaign (with a big gap to champions Manchester City and runners-up Manchester United).

Pre-match, Arsenal sat sixth in the Premier League, some six points off the top. In contrast, Reading were 18th without a single win to their name.

The French manager of the London side, Arsene Wenger, picked a completely new starting XI to the previous match, wanting to make use of his entire squad. In addition, he was constantly stating in public that the League Cup was low on the list of priorities for him. Nevertheless, he certainly didn't want to just give up the match in Reading.

Arsenal were aiming to reach the last eight of the League Cup for the tenth successive season, so this match had a certain prestige and value for the club as well as for Wenger.

But what happened in the first half, Wenger certainly didn't even imagine as a worst-case scenario.

Blue first half

Reading, who needed to give their poor season a boost, entered the match like a hurricane.

The home team, in their traditional strip of blue and white hoops, immediately launched into the attack. They hit the post in the third minute, had another big chance in the ninth minute, and three minutes after that it was already 1-0.

Then, in the 18th minute, Arsenal's Laurent Koscielny attempted to clear the ball only to stab it into his own net. Two minutes later, Reading scored their third goal, and they weren't done there.

With eight minutes to go before half-time, a fast break from Reading was finished by a header from Noel Hunt (brother of Stephen Hunt, who was mentioned in relation to Petr Cech's injury in the previous edition of Flashback) that beat Emiliano Martinez in the Arsenal goal and made it 4–0.

It looked like the half would end with a four-goal lead for the home side, but Arsenal managed to make it 4-1 in stoppage time when Theo Walcott scored with a beautiful chip after Andrey Arshavin's excellent through ball.

Red second half

In the beginning of the second half, there were chances at both ends.

It was Arsenal who struck first with Olivier Giroud steering a header into the far corner after a well-taken Walcott corner, and then the score remained the same, 4-2, for a long time.

However, in the 89th minute, Arsenal scored another goal with a header from a corner kick, with Koscielny making his amends for his own goal to make it 4-3.

In a thrilling finish, the Londoners then managed to equalise. Walcott scored for the second time in the match, but the goal was not without controversy as it had been scored in the 96th minute when only four minutes of stoppage time were added.

Extraordinary extra-time

Incredibly, four more goals were scored in extra-time. 

First, Moroccan striker Marouane Chamakh netted a goal and completed an incredible turnaround with Arsenal going from 4-0 down to 5-4 up.

However, in the 116th minute, when four minutes remained, it was tied again at the Madejski Stadium with Pavel Pogrebnyak scoring to make it 5-5. 

But in the end, again in stoppage time, the Gunners turned the game in their favour. After good play from Arshavin, the ball was tapped into the goal by Walcott, who thus completed his hat-trick.

The broken Reading players then received another blow from Chamakh, making the final score 7-5 and the match the highest-scoring affair in League Cup history.

The match is regarded as one of the most entertaining in the history of football, but despite pulling off this outstanding comeback, Arsenal were eliminated in the next round of the League Cup, beaten by Bradford City, a third-tier surprise package that made it to the final of the competition where they lost to Swansea.

Interestingly, both Premier League 2012/13 matches between Reading and Arsenal also produced a lot of goals.